Although the endocrine and behavioral events of the courtship and incubation phase of the reproductive cycle have been described and analyzed in great detail, the post-hatching period is poorly understood. We propose to gather normative data relating the following factors: (a) timing and amount of eating behavior of parents throughout a breeding cycle, (b) development of feeding in young, (c) parent responses to young in feeding and brooding them and (d) sex differences in timing, duration and quality of parental care by male and female. One of us (R.S.)is interested primarily in analyzing sex differences in reproductive and parental behavior, and hormone-environment-behavior interactions in the adult. The other (P.Z.) is interested primarily in the ontogeny and organization of feeding behavior in the young and the adult animal. The proposed project is an area of overlapping interest which neither investigator has previously explored, and which provides a foundation for further research on behavioral endocrinology and neurobehavioral development.